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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/25702360">Make a wish to save a system!</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/AssyEr/pseuds/AssyEr'>AssyEr</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>The Mechanisms (Band)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>I conceed you one wish each, Lyf is not eldritch but learns magic, Other, and wants to get Midgard back, but the work title box is below and i dont know what to put on that, i dont know what else to tag it, no beta we die like men, oh shit here we go again</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-08-04</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-08-04</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-05 08:36:34</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Teen And Up Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>4,178</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/25702360</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/AssyEr/pseuds/AssyEr</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>"(...)“What do you need?” asked Ivy, understanding the dire of the situation.</p><p>Lyfrassir looked at them. “I’ll give you each one wish. Whatever you want, it’s yours. Then, my debt will be fulfilled” or so their mentor said. Gods, they really wished she was right."</p><p> </p><p>Lyf survived, gained magic, and is ready to save his system. But in order to do so, there are debts that need to be fullfiled.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Lyfrassir Edda &amp; Marius von Raum, Lyfrassir Edda/Marius von Raum</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>6</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>73</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Collections:</b></td><td>Writer's Month 2020</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>Make a wish to save a system!</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>Written for the Writer's Month, the prompt was magic</p><p>I had fun writing this, and that's all I'm saying</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Brian and Marius were the only ones in the ship capable, willing (and allowed) to cook.</p><p>This was common knowledge in the Aurora, and the only reason any of them eat anything while in space. After all, the two of them were probably the only ones willing to make food for the rest of the crew, without asking anything in return (well, not anything. Both of them could be persuaded to indulge their friend’s cravings by trading goods and/or services). But the point is, they were the only ones that did anything food-related, and so they took turns in the kitchen.</p><p>Today was Marius turn to make breakfast.</p><p>Breakfast was the best meal to cook, because almost no one in the ship woke up before 2 pm, and that was only to have lunch (which had been moved an hour later than both Brian and Marius preferred for convenience of the rest).</p><p>Already on the kitchen, Marius stretched his arms above him, yawning. He had been thinking about making some pancakes with chocolates chips, it had been a while since they had them for breakfast. And, if Ashes had done their job, he should have some Space Strawberries to go along with them.</p><p>He got a bowl and some flour from a cabinet above him, and started to look for some sort of spoon, or fork. The places where things on the kitchen would appear were completely random, and there was no use in trying to think on some logical place where they could be found.</p><p>Suddenly, his vision started to get kind of blurry, with things getting in and out of focus.</p><p>Was he going to pass out? He extended his hands in front of him, but they didn’t look particularly pale.</p><p>Maybe Raphaella had injected something on him while he slept, again.</p><p>Better to sit and wait until it killed him, then (and if he fell face first on the floor, it was completely planned).</p><p>Death did not make itself wait.</p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p>Ivy was, to no one’s surprise, in the library, engrossed on some book she had rescued from the last planet they had visited.</p><p>She was not going to get out of the room until she finished and properly organized the collection. Food and water would not be a problem, as she had provided both Brian and Marius with the required bribe to ensure some of it would be brought to her during the time that took her.</p><p>She changed the page, and frowned upon the picture. She met a beautiful illustration of the story being narrated, painted in some kind of abstract form, but that was not what stroke her a strange. Ivy, upon focusing on the art, noticed a decrease on her visual input of 14, 87% and decreasing.</p><p>She grabbed a bookmark, just in case, and marked the page.</p><p>Her visual kept decreasing, and her psychomotor system followed suit.</p><p>When was the last time she slept? It had been 36 hours, 37 minutes, 27 seconds, and counting. She had never before suffered the effects of sleep deprivation so fast. But a diagnosis check confirmed that she had no foreign substances on her body.</p><p>Her visual decreased by 68, 5%</p><p>She was not sure of what was happening to her, and that scared her.</p><p>
  <strong>
    <em>Drive system shutting down.</em>
  </strong>
</p><p>
  <strong>
    <em>Visual decreasing by 96, 2%</em>
  </strong>
</p><p>
  <strong>
    <em>Visual decreasing by 100%</em>
  </strong>
</p><p>
  <strong>
    <em>Emergency shut down kicking in.</em>
  </strong>
</p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p>Raphaella la Cognizi was, much like Ivy, not planning getting out of her lab in the next week, tough it was more of an unconscious decision (or as unconscious as it could be with a crate full of provisions hidden behind a Science).</p><p>The Science she was working on, right now, was fascinating. It moved only under a very particular shade of black, and had eaten one of her fingers. She could not wait to see what it would do to Jonny’s arm. She had it right next to her, on top of a table, and was still dripping blood.</p><p>She put her Science Googles, and her favorite pair of Science Gloves, and already had her Science Grin in excitement as what was about to happen.</p><p>But there was something wrong with her googles, because things got darker suddenly. She got them off to clean them, but nothing on her vision changed.</p><p>It couldn’t have gotten darker all of the sudden, she knew, because the Science was still. There was something wrong with her.</p><p>That was… weird. She had prepared everything for this experiment to go perfect (even hanged the sign on the door that said that all those who engaged with her while inside would be considered volunteer donators to the Science Cause, and would be treated as such). And she had killed herself to not let the lack of sleep cloud her judgement.</p><p>Whatever was wrong with her, it wasn’t anything important, or that could not be resolved with a bullet to her head, probably. She just needed her gun, and that would be all.</p><p>Where was it? The word was starting to spin.</p><p>She had put it in the table next to the Science. She could clearly remember this. But the gun was not there.</p><p>Then she noticed something. The Science was not where she had left it. It had moved.</p><p>She realized then that it had only moved in that particular shade of black <em>while she observed it.</em> There was no way of knowing what it had done while she gave it her back.</p><p>Apparently, moved and ate her gun.</p><p>She whispered a single word, before falling to the floor and into unconsciousness.</p><p>
  <em>“Fascinating”</em>
</p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p>Whatever Raphaella had given him, Marius tough, was potent and a hallucinogen, and he would be asking her more, because when he opened his eyes and managed to focus on something, the thing he saw first was a face he thought lost forever.</p><p>“Ah, good morning, Inspector Lyf,” he told him, because what else could he even think of saying.</p><p>The response was music to his ears. “von Raum,” Lyf said, in that annoyed and done tone that only he could intonate in only two words.</p><p>He let a laugh of pure happiness, and congratulated himself. After all those centuries, he could still recall their voice without fail. Truly a feat, considering that the only reason he remembered that he had never been a real baron was because his crewmates wouldn’t let him leave the dream.</p><p>Looking around to see if he was still in the kitchen, he- okay, no, bad idea. It had been a very bad idea. Back to Lyf, to their beautiful long hair and kind of concerned eyes?</p><p>“Ah, yes, sorry, should have warned you. I wouldn’t do that if I were you” they told him.</p><p>When he tried to look around (and he wouldn’t do it again, he had learned his lesson) things had become… intense. Blurry. Logically, he knew that he <em>had</em> seen something. He supposed. But he couldn’t remember nothing more than the feeling of being adrift, everywhere and nowhere at the same time, and an intense pain behind the eyes.</p><p>
  <em>The fuck had Raphaella given him?</em>
</p><p>“Inspector?” said a voice to his right.</p><p>What was Ivy doing in his hallucination? She was not invited. This was between him and Lyf, he didn’t want her there. He closed his eyes very, very hard and tried to make her disappear.</p><p>But when he turned to see if she was there (luckily no pain arousing from the sensation, as he had something else to focus instead of his surroundings) he saw her, looking at the inspector with a confused face.</p><p>Good. Ivy did not like to be confused. It was the least she deserved for invading his fantasy.</p><p>Lyf did not seem to mind her presence, much to his annoyance. “Former inspector, actually. I highly doubt the station survived the Bifrost.”</p><p>Of course it didn’t survive, Lyf, Marius wanted to tell them. He had spent centuries searching everywhere for any rest of the Yggdrasil System, looking for them, and hadn’t found anything.</p><p>Ivy was quick to compose herself. “Right,” she said. “Could I inquire what I am doing here? Marius I understand, but I was in the middle of something and I would like to go back to it right now”</p><p>That was a very good point. “Yes, Ivy should go” Marius contributed. Whatever kind of weird trip he was in, Lyfrassir seemed to be in charge it, and he had many complains to voice right now.</p><p>“What? No, I need you three. Where’s la Cognizi?” they started looking around for the absent ex-prisoner, and it was very unfair that he could do that but Marius don’t.</p><p>Then, on Ivy’s right, the person in question appeared. “Oh?” said Raphaella. “Has the Science managed to drug me?” she seemed way too excited about it.</p><p>Marius corrected her, because maybe if she saw how much she didn’t belong there she would leave, and who knows, perhaps take Ivy with her. “No, you drugged me.”</p><p>Ivy stepped into the conversation. “My systems found no trail of drugs or any other foreign substance in my body, so it’s improbable for you two to have them” she provided.</p><p>“Get out of here, hallucination,” he had no time to discuss probabilities with a product of his mind. In part because, sharing a brain, neither of them had any idea of what they were saying, but mainly because he was with Lyf and he wanted to just enjoy his time without them both trying to make him think logically.</p><p>“Listen, you are not hallucinations” Lyfrassir said, and actually no, his brain was not that good, because there was no way they would talk with them with such a patient expression.</p><p>Raphaella was the first to notice the mistake on their logic. “That’s what a hallucination would say” she chimed.</p><p>And there it was, that “I’m so done right now” expression of them. How had he missed it?</p><p>They sighted, and tried again. “I am not a hallucination, you are not hallucinations, there are no hallucinations here. Except perhaps the concept of the space we are occupying right now, but I don’t recommend you to think much about it” they told them.</p><p>It was too late for both Ivy and Raphaella, who wore already expression of pains on their faces, and had their hands on their heads to try and alleviate the pain. Marius, who hadn’t thought too much into anything since he saw a girl eat a pencil in front of him in kindergarten, was immune to the pain and instead delighted in seeing his friends hurting.</p><p>“Ha, good one, Lyf” he told them when the others seemed to stop thinking too much about the void that they were in.</p><p>They had the funniest expression of guilt on their face. “Shut up, von Raum,” they said to him.</p><p>At least now they seemed to believe them. “Okay, we believe you, this is not a hallucination.” Raphaella said. “They don’t hurt nearly as much…”</p><p>“Speak for yourself,” spoke Marius, who had entered into a negating state because the implication of all that being real were definitely too much for him.</p><p>They all looked at him, Lyf with an exasperated expression, and his friends with a more concerned one. “Marius…” attempted to say Ivy.</p><p>“Nop. Not listening. Fake Lyf, did you have something to tell us?”</p><p>Lyf sighed again. They tended to do that a lot around the bunch, they noticed. “Yes. And I suppose it doesn’t really matter if you don’t believe that I’m real” they looked at him while saying that last part, to which Marius only shrugged, a dumb smile on unconcern on his face.</p><p>“As those who believe in my existence can see, I survived. And I think I can bring Yggdrasil back,” they looked around for their reactions. Skepticism, fascination, that stupid grin. It… it’ll do. “I found a man, who taught me magic-,”</p><p>Raphaella cut them again. “Magic doesn’t exist,” she told them, all matter-of-fact.</p><p>“Yes it does.” It was embarrassing that they couldn’t get a better response in mind than that.</p><p>“No it doesn’t,” she retorted.</p><p>Ivy, of course, had her own views to share. “There is only a 0.0071% chance of something that could be considered magic existing”</p><p>They looked at Marius, waiting for him to also step in. He must have noticed their staring, because they shrugged while maintaining visual contact, as if saying “I still don’t believe that any of this is real, so magic or not makes no difference to me.”</p><p>Lyf remembered why they hated having to deal with them back in Midgard.</p><p>“Magic exist, and that’s how I got you all here- no, Alexandria, I don’t care about any statistic or percentage or whatsoever. Listen to me, please. We have little time, for what I need to do.”</p><p>“And what would that be?” asked Marius, exited. So far, this had turned out to be a very interesting product of his fantasy, and he couldn’t wait to see what their brain came up with next.</p><p>They buried their head on their hands, breathing deeply. They knew that the hard part was barely starting. “Before I can try something as big as bringing Yggdrasil back, I need to be at peace with myself. I need to pay my debts, so to say.”</p><p>Marius actually laughed. “And what does that have to do with us?”</p><p>Lyfrassir Edda looked up to the bunch. They knew that they were a group of maniatics, amoral delinquents whose idea of a vacation was sit and watch entire systems be destroyed into nothingness. But they hadn’t spent so many years at therapy to go back to denial. Yggdrasil counted with them, and if a little embarrassment was required, they would just have to Deal With It.</p><p>“I feel indebted. Towards you three”</p><p>Alexandria actually laughed.</p><p>No one said anything, waiting for them to drop the punch line.</p><p>Once more, they sighed. “It doesn’t mean that I don’t hate you all for what you did to my people. Just that I recognize that you, telling the story, no matter how much it irritates me, is the only reason why Yggdrasil is still remembered. And I can’t bring it back if it’s forgotten, so you are indirectly helping me save it.”</p><p>Marius was probably focusing on the wrong part of their speech, he knew, but he still couldn’t get over the first sentence. “You hate us?” he asked them, sad. He did not want Lyf to hate him, not even an imaginary one. That did not felt good.</p><p>They looked at him as if he had asked the dumbest question ever. Which, considering circumstances, he may have. “That’s what you focusing on? Really? Yes, von Raum, of course I hate you” they said between gritted teeth. “You knew what was going to happen. You sat and waited, and didn’t lift a finger to help my people”</p><p>“We didn’t know <em>exactly</em> what would happen. That’s why we were there,” Raph reasoned.</p><p>Lyf was going to lose their mind with them, they knew it. “But you knew something! Even if you didn’t know until I told you that the Bifrost had arrived, you could have said something, someone else could have been saved, and I wouldn’t be the only one! I-!”</p><p>“I’m sorry,” said Marius, more honesty on his voice than it had ever professed in the last millennium.</p><p>They all looked at him. “I’m… I’m sorry, Lyf”</p><p>He was pained, he truly was. Shoulder hunched, looking at their eyes, Marius tried to make Lyf see that. He didn’t want them to be angry, and even if he was sorry for the wrong reasons, even if he could barely remember anything else from the planet save the way they pronounced his name after he confiscated yet another violin… it had to be worth something, right?</p><p>He hoped so. It was all that he could offer.</p><p>“I…” said Lyf, astonished. They had not been expecting this. “Thank you. That… that means a lot to me.”</p><p>They tried to hold onto the anger they had felt before. That changed nothing, their planet was still gone. They shouldn’t forgive him just because there turned out to be a pinch of decency inside of him. But with him looking at them like that, the look that held nothing back and begged for all, it was hard to remember.</p><p>Marius smiled vaguely at them.</p><p>The moment was interrupted by things starting to tremble about them. It… they would say that reality itself was moving and shambling, if they were in any plane of reality. But there being none, and without them being able to think about it, things got… unpleasant.</p><p>“We are running out of time,” Lyf said once they gained back control of the situation. “I don’t know how more long I will be able to hold this”</p><p>“What do you need?” asked Ivy, understanding the dire of the situation.</p><p>Lyfrassir looked at them. “I’ll give you each one wish. Whatever you want, it’s yours. Then, my debt will be fulfilled” or so their mentor said. Gods, they really wished she was right.</p><p>“A wish? How does that even work?” asked Raphaella, always willing to learn.</p><p>Before they could tell her to fuck off and already ask for what she wanted, Alexandria stepped in. “I want my memories, from before my mechanization,” she said, determinate and without an ounce of doubt on her voice. There was a moment of silence prorogued by the surprise of her statement. “Preferably in an USB format,” she added, to cut the quiet and try to actually get things going.</p><p>“I… of course,” Lyf told them, and a small USB appeared on her hand.</p><p>She stared at it, so small for all that it contained. Ivy was sure that if it could her hand would be trembling at the promise of closure it held. She looked up at them. “I believe I should be going.”</p><p>They nodded, and a moment later she was not.</p><p>Raph stared at the spot she had been in, fascinated. “Is it my turn now?”</p><p>Lyf looked at her to the eyes. Theirs were glowing an interesting shade, she noticed. A shame she couldn’t quite catch the color the shade was from. Perhaps them all. “I want a portable particle accelerator. Fun sized,” she clarified.</p><p>Edda blinked, and the Science Officer noticed her pocket getting heavier. Oh, the possibilities. She could barely contain herself.</p><p>She turned to Marius, who looked a bit confused at whatever just happened. She wiggled her fingers at him in a goodbye, and wished him good luck. In the beat of a heart she was also gone.</p><p>Marius looked at Lyf, who was staring in confusion to the spot where she had been. “How did she do that? I didn’t sent her away. She shouldn’t have been able to go” he muttered, and looked up to meet Marius.</p><p>He, once again and in a very accepting of whatever the hell happens way, shrugged. “That’s Raphaella for you” he said, knowing that it explained nothing.</p><p>Some things were not meant to be explained, and they curiously tended to revolve near the self-proclaimed scientist.</p><p>“Sure. Why not,” Lyf decided to just accept the events. Then, they went back to the violinist. “What do <em>you</em> want?”</p><p>Marius actually thought about it. It was a very important decision, you see, and it deserved to get his brain waken up from its hibernation for it.</p><p>Anything in the universe, that was ever created, or could be, or could not be. A thousands of civilizations could arise from nothing but dust and long forgotten bones if he wished so. He could right all wrongs ever committed. He could do the most benevolent or maligner things ever dreamed in this reality. He could become a God, if he wished so.</p><p>Marius von Raum felt, and was for that moment, the most powerful creature in existence.</p><p>He breathed slowly, having made his decision.</p><p>“A violin,” he asked.</p><p>Lyfrassir almost exploded him.</p><p>“A violin,” they repeated, just to check if he had really managed to surpass the biggest level of stupidity in the known cosmos.</p><p>Marius nodded. “A violin,” he confirmed, and then paused, thinking. “And also a sandwich.”</p><p>They had not blinked in the entire interaction. “I offer you infinite possibilities, anything you could ever desire, without limits either physicals or realistically. And you ask for a violin and a sandwich.” Please, Lyf thought. Let me have heard it wrong.</p><p>But his expression was no other than of complete seriousness. “Yes. It doesn’t have to be, like, a really <em>nice</em> violin. But I would like the sandwich to be of tuna with mayonnaise, please.”</p><p>Edda laughed.</p><p>It started as a small chuckle, then a laugh, and finally a full, maniac giggling. Their eyes watered with tears, and they had to double over because laughing so much made their stomach hurt, and they almost fell to the not floor because of the absurdism of the situation. <em>Of course</em>, they told theirself. <em>Of fucking course</em>.</p><p>Marius was starting to worry. When they giggled he tried to imitate them, not getting the joke but still wanted to be included. And then they didn’t stop, and maybe he had said something wrong? Was it the mayonnaise? He knew he shouldn’t have asked for the mayonnaise.</p><p>“Sorry, sorry,” they said, starting to regain composure. Still, some chuckles still escaped them. “It’s just that… It’s just… You haven’t changed a bit, have you?”</p><p>They asked him that with such a free and unconcerned smile, eyes glistering and for once free of worry, just pure childish happiness, and Marius thought that perhaps his wish wasn’t that bad after all.</p><p>“I guess not,” he answered.</p><p>Lyf let go another, short, laugh. “Here you have,” they told him, and Marius found himself holding a sandwich and a violin, one in each hand.</p><p>The instrument was stunning. It had an elegant form, with curves that followed the instrument shape in a way that seemed to be dancing over it. Carved from a single piece of wood, he recognized the material from Midgard, because there was nowhere else in the galaxy that trees grew with such bark, bone white that reflected every color in the rainbow, if touched by the right light. The cords seemed almost invisible over the bridge, but a single touch of the finger would reveal its sturdy nature. Silver ornaments decorated the wide part or the body, and on the base, in beautiful cursive, was engraved his name. Marius passed his thumb over it.</p><p>Then, he looked at his other hand, bringing the food closer to his face. He smelled it, and gave it a small bite. It was delicious. “Do you want a bite?” he asked Lyf, because he had manners.</p><p>They smiled at him. “No, thank you. Enjoy it yourself”</p><p>If they insisted. He gave it another bite, and then realized something. “Is this goodbye?” he asked, confused.</p><p>He didn’t want it to be goodbye. He wanted to stay here, with them. To make them laugh again. Maybe find some song they actually liked.</p><p>They nodded. To his credit, they didn’t look very happy either.</p><p>“I… Good luck, then I guess. Wait!” he exclaimed, starting to feel a tingling on his stomach.</p><p>“I wasn’t doing anything,” Lyf said. Must have been his nerves, then.</p><p>God, he was a gay disaster.</p><p>They fidgeted a bit, which was a bit harder than normal with both hands filled with magical gifts from a far more powerful entity. “Could I… uh… ask you something? Not in the, magic presence sense, but… Will you tell me? If you get your system back” he was not ready to let them go again.</p><p>Their features softened. “I’m sure you will know if some civilization comes back from existence, with their planets and all”.</p><p>“I would still like to hear it from you,” Marius told them in a small voice.</p><p>Lyf opened their mouth, and then closed it.</p><p>They really, really shouldn’t. Not him. He had known about the Bifrost, and done nothing. He was an immortal bastard, and cared for nothing but himself.</p><p>“I will even let you steal <em>all</em> of my violins,” he tried with a half-smile.</p><p>But he had apologized, and actually had seemed sincere for one. He was looking at them with hope. And that laugh they had. Gods, it had been… too long since they had laughed like that. Before Odin. Since they had been forced to interrogate the bunch, they had to admit.</p><p>They were going to regret it so, so much, they could tell.</p><p>“Tell you what. If you ever notice your violins disappearing, I won’t be too far,” they told them, and that’s all that they could be. And it was fine.</p><p>To Marius it seemed like they had given him all they could ever ask for. No, they had already given him that, and he had not been nowhere near as happy as this new smile showed them.    </p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>So, thank you for reading! I would gift you a tuna sandwich if that wasnt an abobination and even thinking about its flavour a sin (I honestly dont know if that made sense but its late and its already written just know that I &lt;3 to you)</p></blockquote></div></div>
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